The cultural offer around AIFA
Tourist service providers see potential in works such as the Paleontological Museum of Santa Lucía Quinametzin, built inside the airport area and where more than 600 fossils of mammoths and other species.
Together with the museum, the organization has proposed a ‘Route of the Mammoth’a tour designed for the international market that, in addition to the Santa Lucía region, includes municipalities such as Xaltocan, the Mammoth Museum in Tultepec, San Pablo de las Salinas in Tultitlán and Magdalena Huxachitla, in Coacalco, as they house remains that are managed by the municipal government and even by neighborhood councils.
In addition, they see a great opportunity to take advantage of other attractions within AIFA itself, such as the Aviation Museumthe Olivo Presidential Train and one more Military Train.
“This cultural complex in Santa Lucía is helping us to boost tourism in the region,” says Velázquez. Even recently the tourist service operators made a commercial alliance with AIFA to promote themselves on the screens and information modules of the airport.
The size of the market they are targeting is not smaller. Despite the fact that AIFA served just over a million passengers, the expectation is that it will eventually serve 20 million users per year; In addition, there are other entry channels for nearby travelers, such as those heading to the region of Teotihuacán, which receives just over 20 million visitors each year.
The organization also targets local tourism, that in the municipalities that surround the AIFA it concentrates a potential market of almost 9 million inhabitants, according to its estimates.
Lack of infrastructure
But to cater for large-volume tourism, the surrounding tourism infrastructure falls short. with so just a hotel of a chain –of the Holiday Inn brand, owned by the Sedena– and one more of the armed forces, the region does not have large accommodation capacities.
The same goes for the restaurant offer and even trained personnel, since Velázquez believes that there are still areas of opportunity in areas such as English ability, for example. Therefore, it will be sought that professionalization continues around the region.
“With the construction of the Felipe Ángeles International Airport, we as providers of tourist services have seen the new area of opportunity that we have to improve and increase our competitiveness at the national level,” he concludes.